Human hair has a variety of textures, from fine to coarse, and from straight to curly. In today's society, the ability to alter or change the texture of one's hair through chemical processes is important to both men and women. Hair care products and chemical processes that can alter the texture of hair are in great demand. Among individuals with excessively curly hair, products and processes that straighten or "relax" hair are especially popular, for such products and processes increase hair manageability and ease of styling.
The relaxing process operates by changing the chemical structure of the hair fibers. Hair fibers are comprised of keratin, which is in turn comprised of polypeptide chains bonded together by three types of bonds: cystine (or disulfide) bonds hydrogen bonds, and salt linkages. The relaxing process operates primarily on the cystine bonds. When the cystine bonds are exposed. to an alkaline relaxing solution, they are transformed to lanthionine bonds. The chemical term for the hair relaxing process is lanthionization.
In the conventional relaxing process, an alkaline relaxing solution is first applied to the hair for eighteen to, twenty minutes. During this step, hair gradually becomes physically straighter. After the alkaline relaxing solution has been left on the hair for eighteen to twenty minutes, it is rinsed from the hair with water for one to three minutes. Directions for use of conventional relaxing systems stress the importance of ensuring that the alkaline relaxing solution is left on the hair for no longer than twenty minutes. It is taught that if the relaxing solution is left on the hair for longer than twenty minutes, the hair will be overprocessed, and excessively damaged
Although the conventional relaxing process decreases the amount of curl in hair, it also damages hair. The conventional process causes hair fibers longitudinally to split and break, leaving hair coarse, brittle, and unmanageable. These negative results cannot be corrected by applying conditioning agents to the hair subsequent to the relaxing process. Therefore, individuals wishing to straighten their hair using the conventional relaxing process must suffer the damaging structural effects of the process on their hair.
It is also known that hair fibers swell in the presence of water, and that excessive swelling can also result in structural damage to the fibers. Swelling occurs in both the hair fiber cortex and the hair fiber cuticle-the respective inner and outer portions of the hair fiber. Structural damage to the fiber occurs when the cortex continues to swell after the cuticle has ceased swelling, causing the cuticle and cortex to rupture, thereby rendering the hair damaged, dull, and difficult to manage. Although this swelling phenomenon has been identified, the question of how to avoid the swelling and resulting structural damage to hair during the relaxing process has remained commercially unanswered.
Thus, the conventional relaxing process suffers from the disadvantage of causing excessive swelling of hair fibers and resulting in structural damage to the fibers.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a composition for use during the hair relaxing process to decrease swelling of hair fibers during the hair relaxing process, thereby decreasing structural damage to the fibers.
Another object of the invention is to provide a composition to decrease swelling of hair fibers during the hair relaxing process while also strengthening the hair.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a process for relaxing hair fibers during which hair fibers undergo minimal swelling.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a process for relaxing hair fibers that includes the use of a composition to decrease the swelling of the hair fibers and strengthen the hair fibers during the process.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description.